High Altitude and Anesthesia

Anesthesia at high altitude is a challenging task for all anesthesiologists. The high-altitude intensivists are challenged by the human organism in a hypoxic environment, and the true research potentials presented by high altitude, where thebody is subjected to an essentially isolatedhypoxic challenge, are just beginning to be realized. One of the problems when talking about high altitude is the absence of any universally accepted definition as to what exactly constitutes “high.” High altitude generally means an elevation of 3,000 m or more above the sea level (►Table 1). Although the biological effect of high altitude appears at lower levels, but at this level onward, people ascending to high mountains generally show biochemical, physical, or anatomical changes.1